I never understood why advertisers would fork over $50,000-$100,000 on a one dimension flat layout, a full page ad that barely got a 3-4 second glance from readers, and virtually no user experience. Of course the only user experience that I could think of as my analytical wheels started to spin was perfume ads, yep-the good old scratch and sniff. But the fact that advertisers never knew how long the reader looked at their glossy little ads gave me the most unsettling feeling. MBA degree or no MBA degree, there was no amount of Adam Smith citings that could make me think this was anything but old fashioned highway robbery. When I flipped through magazines and spotted any advertisement, especially if I was privy to the advertisers media kit, I kept saying to myself how did they do it? How did they convince them to spend all of this money on this one page ad? Some how this magazine publication duped mega companies, like big - huge- multimillion dollar companies to buy their audience, an audience that didn't care to interact with their ADS in the first place for like, oh... $100,000 for this AD? Skip the economic class that praised Adam Smith, let me sit in on that class. I don't want you to get me wrong, I love business models, I love how businesses are created, their life cycle intrigues me. And I am a respecter of mostly all business models and business owners who have started in their bedrooms, or kitchen tables, or garage with a bright idea and a few thousands to start. I am fascinated with all models even those that manage to produce those creepy products that show up on informercials in the middle of night. Sure I thought the magazine business model one was probably sound, and had it day but I knew for sure it wouldn't last for long. My epiphany came as soon as I got an AOL account in the late 90s. It was then that I realized that the magazine advertisement model as I knew it would one day meet its maker. As insightful as it sounds now, who really would've listened to me then?

Now here is what went through my head... While I was flipping through the magazines that I purchased, I kept thinking that a reader isn't even looking at this ad as long as me; I am viewing the ad for about 4 seconds, that's long. Count 1-2-3- and 4 real seconds, that's really long but even that's not long enough to connect with a reader. Now count 1 real second right now - yep, over in a flash? Well that's usually how long a reader glances at an ad. And no matter how nice and gloss the AD is, they really ultimately got in the way of the title content that the readers were searching for. In the reader's mind those ADs were either filler pages or fantasy/wish book ads. From Glamor mags to Vanity Fair mags, could a person making even $50,000 a year afford every Tiffany bracelet that they saw? Sure it made for good beautiful wishes and dreams. But did it motivate me enough to run down there to buy a bracelet? In fact, I don't even think it registered long enough for me to remember what kind of bracelet it was in the first place. I know that I am not alone because the reader ultimately wanted to experience or read whatever the magazine put on the cover. Unless a full page BUY ME-BUY ME- ad was approved to be plastered on the cover, which was never going to happen, the reader wasn't going to actively search for this magnificent ad.

The second strike was the lack of interaction that the user or customer had with the ad. That really made me question the effectiveness of this business model, once I started hitting the AOL chatrooms and listening to 'YOU GOT MAIL'. How would the advertisers know if the reader really connected with their ad in the first place? I know that I thought then that I know one thing, if I am forking over $50,000 - I want to know how long the person interacted with my presentation. People keep calling this social media, but the online ad industry is really participation media. Now individuals can really let the corporate advertising department know how much they are participating with their ad. In fact they can even test the effectiveness of the ad by monitoring how long their potential customers are looking at the AD.

There are three things that makes the online market much more advantageous to any corporate adviser...

No Delayed Purchase - When people visit a website that the advertiser's are partnering with, the demographic that they wish to reach now, like immediately has the wonderful possibility to 1) click on that online property instantly 2) access the product or service immediately and then 3) purchase the product or service immediately. This is not possible with print and television advertising. Although a little birdie has told me that the cable industry and television industry are both partnering to find ways to make instant advertising available with the click of a remote, the internet still remains the number one medium. And the great thing about advertising online is that there is an immediate call to action. Advertisers can receive a visitor from a partnering website and the person that is interested can instantly make a purchasing decision. In print? The reader has more than likely placed the magazine in the trash bin if it's outdated. There is no immediate call to action. Whether an advertiser (corporation) is E-commerce based or not, they can turn these visitors into sales a lot easier than in normal advertising because the client and customer feels empowered enough to click. They can access the information that they seek on their own time. They feel empowered and feel in control of the sales process and they still feel that they alone are making the buying decision.

Memorable and Visible - Consumers can remember 20 of their favorite websites. However ask them to remember that business number that advertisers (companies) flash on the television screen as a call to action or better yet ask them to remember what was on page 75 (without looking) in the magazine that they are currently holding. If it's an AD, I am guessing that they won't even have a clue. But their relationship with the online property is more valuable to them than the relationship that they have with any allotted commercial space. They are watching the television show and program for the program itself. They are reading the magazine for the cover itself. There is a break in the consumer's mind, that distinctly separates the consumer from the commercial or magazine ad. Even though advertisers, the old advertisers, feel that they are presenting to the appropriate demographic so it shouldn't make a difference. An example, soap opera viewers seeing detergent every 30 minutes isn't such a bad idea. That's true. However it is still interrupting the viewer who wants to know who shot J.R. ? The same with magazines, they think if they advertise in ESSENCE magazine all they have to do is have black actors take a picture shopping at their stores, while the readers are trying to find out why Reggie Bush is with Kim Kardashian. On the other hand, and more often than not, because the internet is seen as a source of information, when the voice of the online property presents advertisement as something that should be purchased to a potential customer, their readers and clickers are going to rely on this information. Why? That's why they are on the internet and on the online property in the first place. If they are on a gardening site, they are also relying on that online property to inform them about gardening and probably wouldn't mind it too much if the editorial voice mentioned some cool new gardening tools to purchase. I found that there is no break in the online property's relationship with the relationship that can be developed through that advertising space. And no matter how credible the spokesperson is on a television commercial, people tend to think it's just some smuck interrupting their program for that day or night. Sure advertisers can inform them to check out their company's cleaning business: "Come on down and get your carpet cleaned at Green Cleaning 813-908-7219, we mean business." But people remember relationships, and the social networking sphere provides that on the internet. Visibility: An ad can be on the site 24/7 every single day, no matter how static the ad is. With the right colors, graphics, humor and words - repeating a commercial over and over again online is cheaper and viral. You can't email a television commercial. But you can certainly email the website, that has the commercial on it. Therefore, using online advertising, advertisers will get better brand recognition because their message is infused with the online properties brand and it can be on the site 24/7. There isn't a need to find appropriate time slots and demographics based on zip codes, imagine 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to the entire world? That's what is happening now! And with graphics becoming more sophisticated, an ad that has a viral effect will get more traction than a commercial that's being played over and over again on the television. Ready for my prediction? Television ADs will exclusively go to event commercial spaces: the Superbowl, the Nba finals, presidential speeches and etc. And product placement inside a television show will be more popular for advertisers than outright commercials.

Social Interaction - Probably the most appealing feature of advertisers choosing to market online is that it is such an interactive medium, again unlike television-for now and print advertising. Not only is the call to action immediate, the potential customer can share this call to action with their friends on social networking sites such as twitter. For example, they are on twitter and they are sharing with their twitter stream that they should take a look at a new sale. Now everyone can be empowered to create a call to action for the advertisers product.

Unless the advertisers' product or service smells like perfume, the internet will be the only place advertisers will get the most bang for their buck. And until the magazine industry changes its price structure for advertisers, its going to start to smell too. Dead.

Mia Miller (Martin) -MBA is a consultant for start up companies and start up communities. Her specialties include international trade, political platforms and creative marketing. Email her (m dot m at theimpactequation dot com) if you'd like to talk to her about this article or any past articles.